36 Reasons to do Pull ups
Your reasons to do pull ups.
Here are thirty-six reasons to do pull ups! You should start putting pull ups into your weight training routine. This list includes some of the less-obvious benefits of including this classic bread-and-butter exercise into your life. You will surely notice a lot of benefits–some of which might not even be on this list! Start now and learn the reasons to do pull ups!
1. You will improve your posture
This first one might surprise you, but yes, pull ups really do improve your posture. You activate the rhomboids, mid and lower traps, and rear deltoids when you do pull ups. These are key muscles to develop if you want perfect posture and a structurally balanced upper body.
If you really focus on doing your pull ups correctly, by retracting and depressing your shoulder blades, you can really strengthen your postural muscles. Strengthening these muscles will help your shoulders sit in a better position, improving your posture.
Standing a little taller will help you breathe better, help your waist look smaller, and make you appear more confident. All solid reasons to include pull ups in your training arsenal.
2. You will gain confidence
Here is a good reason to do pull ups! Doing pull ups will help improve your confidence and will also help you appear more confident.
It feels good to do something good for your health, strength, and body composition, and that will make you feel a little better about yourself. Others will notice how you are (literally) carrying yourself a little better and they will respond positively to you as well. You might notice you are receiving more compliments, a promotion at work, or just the confidence to take on bigger challenges in your personal and professional life.
3. You will help your back and shoulders stay healthy
Pull ups help your back stay healthy by strengthening your lats, which play a key role in spinal stabilization and help to buffer forces that could otherwise harm your spinal health. Potentially better back health is one good reason to do pull ups!
Pull ups also help to decompress your spine, which promotes blood flow and nutrient delivery to your spinal discs. Including pull ups into your routine can really help your back stay a bit healthier, over the long haul. (Read more here).
Additionally, pull ups can help your shoulders stay injury-free by 1) improving your posture 2) increasing space between your rotator cuff structures and 3) helping you build a balanced upper body.
1– We already talked about how pull ups can improve your posture by strengthening your upper back muscles.
2– When you hang from a pull up bar, you increase the space between your rotator cuff tendons and your acromium, which helps you to avoid painful impingement type syndromes and fraying of your Rotator cuff tendons. (Talk about OUCH!). Vertical hanging is a great exercise for shoulder health and exercises that incorporate vertical hanging can help you keep your shoulders healthy for years to come.
4. You will attract attention 🙂
People are impressed by other people who can do pull ups! Like it or not, you are going to attract the attention of less-serious and more-serious gym goers, that is, if you train in a commercial gym with other people.
You might get a few comments or compliments–people are going to be impressed by your ability to rock these out.
And even if you don’t train in a commercial gym, people are going to begin to notice you do pull ups by your back development! They will notice it if you wear figure flattering clothes, and even if you don’t wear super tight clothes, people are just going to notice you more.
Pull ups command attention! If you are single, or just want to be respected, those are great reasons to do pull ups.
5. You will improve your bone density
Did you know pull ups and other weight training exercises build your bone density? This is important for everybody, but especially for white, small boned women who are at the highest risk for developing osteoporosis in their lifetime.
Interestingly enough, certain types of exercises are better for building and maintaining bone mass than others. In his research on post-menopausal women, Thabet and others (2017) found that closed chain exercises enhanced bone mineral density more than open chain exercises. Closed chain exercises– like pull ups, squats, and deadlifts– might be best at building bone mass because they stimulate a lot of muscle mass and signal osteogenic, or bone forming activity.
When used in a comprehensive strength training routine, pull ups will help you build strong bones that can withstand more force. Especially if you are small boned and female, this can help you build up or maintain your bone reserves enough to prevent post-menopausal bone loss or fracture.
6. You won’t ever look weedy again
Embarrassed that you currently don’t fill out your t-shirts or look like a weedy week meek little person in your clothes? Fear no more. Doing pull ups (and weight training in general) will prevent you from looking like a weak little nebish. 🙂
(Of course, if you like a leaner, thinner look, props to you. But most people avoid a little muscle tissue to fill out their clothes better and look a little bit more stately. Even if you are female, this can help you look a little more authoritative, especially if you naturally run very small).
7. You will smash stereotypes (this one is for women)
It is 2018, but sadly, some people still believe women don’t belong in the weight room or doing hardcore exercises like pull ups (this may be more true if you live in the bum^&$K middle of nowhere than if you live in a more urban environment).
You can really smash some stereotypes and also prove people wrong by rocking out pull ups in a crowded gym (or by just taking up space at a squat rack).
You might even surprise a few women. A lot of women still believe they are going to get big and bulky by lifting heavy weights or doing hardcore exercises like the pull up, but you can help prove them wrong and also encourage them to weight train with challenging loads.
9. You will be able to open your own jars and water bottles
Man, being weak really sucks! You always have to get someone else to do stuff for you, whether it is carrying heavy bags or just opening your mayonnaise jars for you. Relying on others is the worst, especially when they are not always around to help or they start to get pissed and irritated by your weakness.
Once you start doing pull ups, you won’t ever have to rely on other people again because you are too weak. You will be able to do a lot more yourself and you will find yourself more self-sufficient, especially around the house. This can be very empowering for some people, especially for women whom may have never been able to do a lot of these things in the past. Feeling strong and capable is yet another one of many great reasons to do pull ups.
10. You will get leaner
If you start doing pull ups (along with a full body exercise program for the best results) you will find your body composition start to change. Even if you stay the same weight, you will lose body fat and gain lean muscle mass. Your body will burn through some of its fat stores to build muscle mass, resulting in a leaner, meaner you.
And you will definitely look leaner too. The muscle you build on your back, arms, and shoulders with pull ups will help you look better in all of your clothes and look a lot more impressive.
11. You will become anti-fragile
Weak people are really fragile. Their tissues are just weak and have never had to adapt to any real stimulus. Weak people have weaker tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones, and weaker muscles too. Weak people get injured a lot too. Ever hear about older people who got injured picking up a piece of paper? Weak people can get injured with extremely low stimuli too.
This is because their bodies have such a low strength reserve. It only takes a little force to injure various parts of the weak body. In contrast, a strong person has much stronger tissues that can tolerate much higher forces. Strong people are much less likely to get injured with low-level activities.
Start doing pull ups and other strength exercises and you may find that you feel a lot less fragile, and you are not getting injured with easy activities and activities of daily living.
12. You will strengthen your grip
Hanging onto a bar and pulling up your own body weight will come with serious improvements in your grip strength. Many of my clients start unable to hold onto a pull up bar for more than 5-10 seconds. Really training this position over an extended period of time will strengthen your grip.
You might not realize the benefits of a stronger grip. A better grip will help you with any weight training exercise, in addition to just making activities of daily life a lot easier.
13. You’ll develop a “Christmas Tree”
Coupled with other back exercises like deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts, you will really build your lower back. If you get lean enough, you will have a nice “Christmas Tree.” Basically you will be able to see your Thoracolumbar fascia, which will appear almost like a Christmas tree or inverted pyramid shape.
Depending on your aesthetic preferences, you could be grossed out by this or you could be very proud of your new definition.
14. You will improve your blood glucose control
Pull ups and weight training in general can improve your blood sugar and glycemic control. In 2009, Bweir et. al found that weight training improved subjects glycemic control more than aerobic training. Weight training improves insulin sensitivity more than endurance training. In this way, weight training can help diabetes and pre-diabetics to improve their insulin sensitivity and metabolic profile.
If you want to lessen your chances of developing Type II diabetes, you should definitely be weight training!
15. You will be able to carry your groceries in one trip.
Need I say more?
16. You will expand your vacation-workout arsenal
Ever go on vacation and feel lost without your gym? Instead of skipping your workout routine entirely, now you can likely rely on challenging bodyweight exercises including pull ups. It feels good to expand your abilities for what you can do in the gym, but even better when you have more options to add to your workout arsenal when you go away or might not have access to lots of free weights or cardio machines.
17. You will never have to wait for the assisted pull up or lat pulldown machine again
Waiting for equipment in the gym really sucks. Because few people can actually do pull ups, a lot of people are going to be relying on the lat pulldown and the assisted pull up machine. Now you can breeze right past them and go straight to real pull ups. You will probably have a lot less wait time in the gym, and you will get more bang for your buck doing the real deal.
18. You will become a better athlete
Athletes that do pull ups and weight train become stronger, leaner and denser trainees. Weight training also helps athletes to become more powerful and more injury-resistant on the training or competition field or floor. Finally, weight training with mostly closed-chain exercises–like the pull up–will enhance your coordination and proprioception and reduce your chances of injury or re-injury.
19. Now you can actually consider doing an obstacle course race without dying
Ever see those ads for the Spartan Race or American Ninja Warrior and think, ‘I want to do that?’ Now you can! Well, you will at least be better prepared to climb and scale ropes without dying or seriously fearing for your Rotator cuffs.
20. You will join a select elite group of people who can do pull ups
Few people in this world can even do pull ups. Once you can do your own, you join a select group of strong people in the world. Maybe in the past you were intimidated by people who lift weights intensely but now you see that they are normal people, with just a little bit more grit and determination than the average Joe.
While most of society has become soft and coddled, you are now a bit tougher and determined. You stop taking other peoples’ BS excuses and more importantly, stop tolerating your own.
21. You will improve your bench press and deadlift
Both the bench press and the deadlift demand strong lats. Strong lats will help you stabilize your shoulders in the bench press. In the deadlift, strong lats will help you stabilize your spine and hoist more weight safely. Guess which exercise hammers your lats really hard? You guessed it! Pull ups!
Start doing pull ups, and you will notice that your bench press and deadlift both feel a little stronger and more stable.
22. You will make new friends
We tend to gravitate towards people who share our interests and habits. When you start doing pull ups and training intensely, you open yourself up to a new peer group of hard training individuals. Some of these people will support you, root for you and cheer for you. You will meet new friends and you will probably notice that you share a lot more traits with these people than you thought. You will also realize that the negative stereotypes about people that weight train (meatheads, aggressive, dumb, and out of shape) are not true.
23. You will get an excuse to purchase new clothes
Congratulations; your back has grown out of all your old shirts, coats, and dresses (if you are a woman). Now you have an excuse to go buy some new things!
You might even prefer your slightly more muscular physique, so you will enjoy the process more. And you will look a little leaner too, which will make shopping even more fun.
24. You will improve your “classical” physique and make your waist look smaller
Building a wider back will make your waist look smaller–man or woman. If you naturally don’t have a lot of curve or an hourglass physique, this can give the illusion of more curve and actually make you appear more feminine.
And I believe all men look better with a bigger back, and more muscle overall. 🙂
25. You will maintain functional capacity into old age
Pull ups are a great exercise for all ages–everybody needs to be weight training. Weight training has been described as the “magic pill” among exercise researchers and the fountain of youth by others. Even elderly individuals can build muscle mass, improve their metabolism, burn body fat, improve their bone density and decrease their risk of falls.
Especially older people need to be weight training. Weight training is the single most important measure for maintaining functional capacity into old age and staying out of the nursing home. So if you are a little bit older, get to it!
26. You will have an excuse to get frequent massages
Pull ups and weight training are great for your body, but you may notice a bit of muscular tightness or soreness. Now you actually have a reason to get those massages! I will take any excuse I can get to justify a massage habit!
27. You will sleep better
Exercise and weight training can really help improve your sleep, especially if you currently don’t sleep very well. So many people sit at a desk all day, staring at a computer screen, and then wonder why they cannot sleep at night.
Intense training during the day can really help you sleep at night, both in the short-term and in the long-term. Just don’t exercise really close to bedtime to avoid getting wired before bed.
28. You will reduce your risk for depression
Weight training boosts levels of endorphins, both in the short-term and in the long-term. It can also help with positive feelings and create feelings of accomplishment, control, and pride. Weight training will also improve your health, stress levels and sleep. It is a great tool for people with depression.
So if you are feeling blue, get to the pull up bar and start working! The results may surprise you.
29. You will be able to eat more food
Training with bread and butter exercises (including pull ups) can help you build more muscle mass and improve your metabolic rate > more food!
Even elderly people in their 90’s can improve their metabolism with weight training. You can burn bodyfat and improve your lean mass with pull ups and other exercises that build muscle. This means you can eat more food and maintain the same body weight, or you can eat the same amount of food and lose a bit of body fat. Intense, multi-joint movements like the pull up, push up, row, squat and deadlift are best for building muscle mass and improving your metabolic rate.
I’m pretty sure most people like to be able to eat more food!
30. People will start asking YOU for workout advice
Accomplishing your first pull ups is a right of passage–one that others notice. Not only will others be impressed by your newfound strength, but they may reach out to you for fitness and strength advice. You should definitely take it as a compliment. Take the opportunity to share your personal experiences and encourage others to weight train and incorporate pull ups into their own arsenal.
31. People won’t mess with you
Like I have mentioned before, pull ups make you appear a bit more authoritative and people really won’t want to mess with you. You may find people in your life, your relationships or your workplace respect you a little bit more and you are no longer treated like a total doormat.
32. You will have a stronger handshake
A stronger grip means a stronger handshake. This is good news when you want to make a good first impression instead of making people wonder if you even have a heartbeat. This is definitely good news if you are going for a job interview, selling something, or meeting your SO’s parents.
33. You won’t get out of breath so easily
Even weight training with multi-joint exercises like the pull up can improve your cardiovascular system. Instead of huffing and puffing with normal activities of daily living, you may find that you have just a little bit more stamina and endurance. You also have better strength endurance, or the ability to display or maintain strength over an extended period of time without drop-offs.
34. You will develop a new intellectual interest
Training in general is actually a very intellectual pursuit. You will develop an interest and appreciation for the finer points of training, and desire to learn more about sport and exercise science as well as optimal training methods.
If you are still in school, you might choose to pursue an education in sports science or related fields. And if you are out of school, you may want to pursue some sort of formalized education in fitness, or even a career change.
35. You will appreciate what your body can do
If you have never pushed your body, you may take all your internal workings for granted. Once you start to stress your body with resistance training, you will begin to appreciate your body for what it can do and how it takes care of all the damage you produce, and actually come back stronger. The body is an incredible machine, you realize.
36. You will have a new reason to work out, besides just what you look like
In the past you may have only worked out to look good. This mindset can be kind of mentally draining and not very enjoyable. Once you have a purpose to your training and desire to get stronger and see what your body can do, exercise becomes much more enjoyable. Your sessions have a much greater sense of purpose and you look forward to them much more. The entire habit becomes much more sustainable than when you viewed training as a way to burn calories solely or maintain a certain size or bodyweight.
These 36 reasons to do pull ups just scratch the surface. Once you start doing pull ups, you realize that the benefits abound. Intense training with pull ups and other intense exercises might seem intimidating at first, but eventually you will realize that training is an incredible gift and privilege. Get started today, and I am sure you will begin to experience many of these awesome perks–plus more!